Extend your break and
Invite a timeback
Miss your break and
You never get that time back.
Time is costly,
15 times over.

Good preachers always follow
The empowered ones leave it to others.

Fatal and Non-Fatal are antonyms,
Either of them are errors and hence synonyms.

Long hold on Call or a long After Call
You will be held after call, and long after your shift.

There was a spring,
There were flowers,
But all that is left now,
Are like the ruins of a war.

Forgive me if I am wrong,
But it is saturating now.
Accept me if I am right,
It is excruciating now.

If changes are made to be upheld
Is common sense to be withheld?
If you need tequila shots to relieve stress,
You would be better off elsewhere.

It was the wee hours of dawn and I could notice a man in his thirties running while his hands were holding some objects close to his chest. It was so clear that he was trying his best to make sure that he had a bounty as large as possible.

By this time the lady was not just shouting but was running towards the road. I know this woman. She is my neighbor. There is a shameless human stealing somebody’s hard earned wealth.

I rush towards the road. A 10 hour shift and the following 90 minute journey by train had its effects on me. A slight pain in the spine due to hours of sitting continuously and inflammation in my eyes just reflected the tough day that had passed.

In a split second, I decide that there was no point in running behind a man with an intent to save his life and his bounty with the physical condition I was in. I picked up the gravel on the roadside and tried to grab as much as I can and started pelting them on that guy. Good. It worked. Obviously, when both he and I could run five steps a second, my stones travelled 25. Thank heavens! I was able to think.

The man didn’t expect the stone shower and put some of the loot down and took off again. Now it was clear that he was losing some ground. Almost all of my last few throws hit the target and one of them had him bleeding. Very soon he vanished into the darker area of the road. No way to spot him. No street lights. Hell… Is this what I pay taxes for?  To provide a hideout for a dirty scoundrel?  ***t man..

When I turned back, I saw the woman. She was sobbing, but not as badly as she started out earlier. Now there was a sense of anger and trust me, she would have killed him if he had come to light. Two auto rickshaw guys joined us in the scene. Kind fellas…. They parked their autos in such a way that the headlight pointed towards the dark and started the auto. Now there was light. Wow. We recovered the mixie he had taken.  The pelting and running had its effect. But he ran with a lighter, smaller and more precious stuff.

A gold plated ladle. The woman had got it as a gift from her late brother, to mark the first birthday of her kid. What a pity! Now that was gone. We had to inform the cops about the situation. In the meantime, the auto rickshaw guys and I did our own search. With some help from the localites on the other side of the road, we spotted the guy and almost surrounded. The only question was about the culprit being armed. We had no clue if he was armed and if yes, to what extent?

So we called the cops again and they took the hard way out by evacuating the two neighboring houses. Finally, the guy gave up without any resistance whatsoever to the cops. He knew that surrendering to the cops meant that he would not die at least, which could have been the case if he was caught by the public. Getting beaten up by 25-30 people and still joking around happens only in Vadivelu comedy.

3 hours later, I get a call from the police constable to meet the Sub Inspector of Police. I have never been to our local station as we have a police beat one km away. So it took me almost half an hour to reach the station.  First question after the formalities was this – Did you guys face each other? I denied. When he was brought out of hiding, I was one among a hundred people watching. Here at the station, he was already behind the bars and hence he cannot see me. The Sub Inspector advised me to keep this low key and not to speak about this to anyone in the area as it might turn out to be problematic for me. That was a smart move. When the guy was brought out to be taken to the main cell, he passed through me, the police constable asked me to give way and we saw eye-to-eye. No reaction. He obviously didn’t know me. Good.

By now, the station in-charge had become good friend with me and mocked me that my appearance and action hold no resemblance. I accepted the compliment and asked him why nothing is being done about the street light. This is when I got a perfectly stereotype answer, that befits any department in the Government- “Thambi(younger brother), I really understand it. Even we(police) are suffering due to this as not all have 4 wheelers to go on patrol. But it is the Public Works Dept. that has to work on it.”

Come on guys. When are we ever going to own the mistakes and rectify them. Probably, never. Passing the buck has got into our blood. The woman was very thankful to me. I just told her that she was the first line of defence and the rest can only minimize the impact and not anything more. The sub Inspector sent a cop to drop her at her place and came with me to see me off at the railway station for my office.

I started another day of work, a longer one than yesterday. But today it was feeling better. The day was well spent. I could see a meaning in it.

One piece of advice/suggestion/opinion: Your safety strictly is in your hands. But let that not stop you from helping others. If a thief can mask himself with a kerchief and steal with anonymity, you can do the same and thwart a theft.

For quite some time now, even I had thought of Linux as a rugged, difficult to understand Operating System. Not after I found this gem in Ubuntu. 9.10 is the latest version of this OS. The OS is a project funded by Canonical Corporation. The man behind the mission to make OS free for all is Mark Shuttleworth. Without digging deep into history, this man hails from South Africa and founded a company called Thawte consultancy which certified the security of websites. He is the 2nd person to become a space tourist at a cost of $20 million. This guy has spent a good amount of money on Linux OS development. (Enough!!)

Now, for those who feel Linux is not eye-catching, take a look at Ubuntu’s desktop.

The best part is this. If you ever need help. Just GOOGLE. you will find help pouring from all corners of the world. Now that is what you call an integrated community.

Ubuntu has gone one step further. Instead of just asking you to install a fresh copy of Linux, you can also install Ubuntu just like you would install any software inside windows itself. When you feel you dont need (which you wont) just uninstall it. I am just awestruck. Last but not the least, you get a satisfaction of contributing to the noble cause, free software for everyone.

Note: In January 2009 the New York Times reported that Ubuntu had over ten million users and in June 2009 ZDNet reported “Worldwide, there are 13 million active Ubuntu users with use growing faster than any other distribution.

You can go to www.en.wikipedia.org to read more about Mark Shuttleworth, Ubuntu and Linux.

Another guy writes sonnets and ballads at will and keeps mailing his works almost every hour.(God’s sake he is in the underwriting dept of a credit card company. Finance-literature.. what a combo!!!)

At the end of the day, I really find it tough to say what my main hobby is. I write (at times), sing (at times), play (at times), and think a lot. But then, doing things in bits and pieces is the fun quotient in hobbies, otherwise it would be a job(he he he.. I found a way to console myself!!)

So, here I am. Just done with my night shift. Well, I work at a Global Contact Center for a bank. Had a good breakfast at Harrisons. Happily heading towards home to spend a whole weekend. I may not know what I am going to do over the weekend or how wise my hobbies are, but I am sure to have a good time.

Bye for now. Just 48 hours more before I start off another week of customer service.

I am an ex employee of the giant and currently a third party vendor for the same.

Citi is one among the 7 banks that has failed to pass the stress test conducted by the US Treasury. It fell well short of the target. Notably, a week ago, Citi had requested the Treasury to let it pay bonuses to its top executives for the just-concluded profitable quarter in 2009. Trouble and Citi have been walking hand in hand for quite some time now. 

Not long ago, one share of Citi was selling for lesser than what would cost a pint of beer in a New York bar. Yes. Restructuring or bringing Citi to profitability in a couple of quarters would be like asking a woman to give a baby in a month. It just can’t happen. But the lavish bonuses paid early on definitely had an impact on the financial condition of the company. No one can deny that. The shopping spree that Citi is so used to is showing its deadly face and it is the duty of the torch bearers to see the company weather the storm.

God forbid, if this is not done, the fall and the aftermath of the fall of this giant will leave a crater too big to fill.

Still, I am quite an admirer of people who are able to keep things with an amazing level or orderliness that instantly wins them a huge fan following. But I personally have a feeling that things are pretty ok as long as you are able to find things as and when you need without much fuss. After all, it is your private space and you need to have the liberty to keep it the way you want. 

This week had one common repetition though. Going to the gym – Earlier it used to be for building muscles but now for reducing the tummy(cost of the delay!!!!!!). My 4th attempt to go to the gym continuously hit a roadblock. My friends Maddy and Suheil would dare to argue that my mindset is the roadblock. Even late evening Table Tennis is becoming difficult. But yes, I am gonna try again. Let me give a shot again.

Probably, I can write after some time about being 5th time lucky

These trains are supposed to go through a chamber filled with vaccum. The gradual acceleration from 0-1000 mph and a deceleration from 1000-0 mph will be the slowest parts of the journey. This apart, you will find yourself in British territory 18 minutes after your departure from America. Sounds unimaginably great? Now see what it costs.

This is created with a view to provide economic, safe and faster mode of transportation. However, creating a vaccum in a tunnel that is more than 2500 miles long will need the power of a whole fleet of Boeing jets operating at full throttle for over 40 days. Fire – the most devastating power in any tunnel tragedy is an iminent threat. Not to forget, the collision of trains. Can two trains traveling at 8000 mph have the time and sense to avoid a head-on? If it doesn’t, the relief work will become the most difficult task on earth. What will happen to passengers inside the train. At extreme speeds, human body tends to have G-Forces acting on it. What are its implications? 

The model seems not only revolutionary but also economical. Still, this feat, if achieved will take engineering to an entirely different level.